I thought that it was an interesting commentary on how terrorism no longer has a fixed definition. It’s like “New & Improved!” or “King Sized!” on product packaging.

I’m in pretty late to comment, but:

To be fair, the word had a considerably ambiguous definition to begin with. Yes it was specific, in a way, but it is defined in terms which are ripe for opportunistic interpretation.

In high school as a senior I once made my (British) english teacher uncomfortably change the subject when I noted that, according to the English, the American revolutionaries could probably have been accurately defined as being terrorists, had the word existed.

Combine this ambiguous definition with the fact that most of us now think of religious radicals blowing up airplanes full of innocent people when we hear the word “terrorist” and really, you have one of the more perfect buzzwords to get people riled up.

If it was easy to get a rise out of a crowd talking about blacks (but using a slur, of course), or Irish, or gays, or children, or convicts… it’s oh so much easier to do it with “terrorists”. It’s a great word to abuse, because you can say it in a way that is totally dishonest to its connotation, yet perfectly true to the denotation. Lying without “lying” at all.

]]>By: Pixelhttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500752
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500752#36 – Read the earlier comments before you post. Modern security camera systems only record when there is movement. So the several minutes between the people & the car were not recorded because it was an empty hallway.
No editing to make it more “harrowing”

So the correct answer is no editing tricks going on. I’m not sure what that says about your “sane” answer.

]]>By: technogeekhttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500244
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500244This, BTW, is the reason some corporations have those cast-concrete planters and benches and so on in front of their buildings — they’re camoflaged “tank traps”, anchored down and heavily reinforced so they’ll stop anyone who tries this stunt.
]]>By: apoxiahttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500246
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-50024610 years is a long time. People guilty of manslaughter and rape here in NZ generally get less than that.
]]>By: Dean Boothhttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-501526
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-501526Ten years is outrageous. The US has more people in prison than any other country. We have got to return reason and justice to sentencing.
]]>By: IWoodhttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500762
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500762Anger manugment isshus. I has them.
]]>By: Antinous / Moderatorhttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-502558
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-502558You could terrorize your little brother, but it wouldn’t make you a terrorist. I think that ‘widespread’ and ‘deliberate’ have to be factors. That guy who went to jail as a terrorist for torching some Hummers is a great example of misapplication of the word. What widespread group was he deliberately trying to terrorize? Hummer dealers? It doesn’t parse.
]]>By: Anonymoushttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500526
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500526FIGHT THE POWER!!
]]>By: jimhhttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500272
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500272Definitely making an example of him with the 10 year sentence, and he most likely has a severe mental condition if he’s driving a car into a building at 45 mph. I don’t excuse the action, but maybe he needs a different type of institutionalization than ten years in a penitentiary?
]]>By: jimhhttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500274
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500274Oh, and Yakety Sax FTW.
]]>By: Piers Whttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-501302
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-501302Here in the UK we do things differently. A man with a ‘genuine complaint’.

“We ordered a wardrobe, a chest of drawers and a double bed from Tesco Direct. When it came it didn’t have a mattress which we thought we’d paid for.”

]]>By: jimhhttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-501303
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-501303@YOUDIEJOE #47: “Lots of SPACE in this City hall!”
That made my day, Thanks for posting it!
]]>By: Anonymoushttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500281
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500281Unless this guy can prove he’s psychic, it’s still a bitch move to run his car through the damn place with such heavy disregard.
]]>By: eustacehttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500286
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500286Too bad there’s no video clip of him him hearing the sentence read out in court… keyboard cat could play him off!
]]>By: neuroluxhttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500288
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500288Ten years is a ridiculously long time, considering he drove into the building around 12:30 am. The driver did have reason to believe that it was very unlikely that anyone would happen to be there in city hall at that time of night.
]]>By: obdanhttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500293
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-50029310 years!?
Yikes, he must’ve had a joint on him as well.
]]>By: mdhhttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500809
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500809ryanh at #4 – good effort, 100% correct, but the mob is going to ignore your sensible explanations.
]]>By: youdiejoehttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-501076
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-501076#6 & #12 Here it is with “Can’t Turn You Loose” from the Blues Brothers soundtrack

]]>By: AirPillohttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500310
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500310Yeesh, at least he didn’t drive into the front doors of a police station. There is almost always someone in the entryway to those, even the very smallest precincts.
]]>By: Anonymoushttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500566
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500566I wonder if he plays Grand Theft Auto.
]]>By: jfrancishttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500324
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500324I don’t remember news of this from when it happened
]]>By: Anonymoushttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500070
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500070I love how the video shows people walking around, and then once they’re off-camera, they cut a few seconds to the clip where the car is zooming by. Gotta make it look like more of a near-miss than it was.
]]>By: nobodymanhttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500071
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500071At first viewing it appears as though this car is narrowly missing hitting several people. Upon closer inspection it appears that the security system only records when it detects movement. So the time between someone walking past the hallway and the car driving through it is about 15 minutes apart. Thank God — at 45mph I can easily see someone getting killed.
]]>By: Antinous / Moderatorhttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500076
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500076Where’s the Yakety Sax version?

]]>By: Takuanhttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500846
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500846I’ll get you yet Boris!http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/23/boris-cycling
]]>By: thatguyrustehttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500079
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500079Wow, I’m not sure what’s crazier… The fact the man did what he did… Or the fact that the video is so OBVIOUSLY edited to make it seem more “harrowing” for the people he “nearly hit”. The first time we see him “nearly hit” someone, look at the time… They walked by the door at 12:18 and then it instantly jumps to 12:36, EIGHTEEN MINUTES LATER, they were long gone by 12:36. The next time he “nearly hit” someone was the group getting on the elevator, which if you look at the time, they got on at 12:20…he came through at 12:36…SIXTEEN MINUTES later. The cop making his rounds near what appears to be a copier? 12:32…a closer call than the rest, sure, but still four whole minutes before he came through. Sure the guy is a total wack-a-doo, and deserves a hefty sentence for such a wreckless crime, but the sensationalism of all his “near hits” in this video is effin ridiculous…
]]>By: nanuqhttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500082
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500082Fighting City Hall seems to have a whole new meaning. It would have been perfect if he had been there to complain about a traffic ticket.
]]>By: Anonymoushttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500087
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500087This video is a lot better if you listen to the instrumental version of “Can’t Turn You Loose” from The Blues Brothers movie as a soundtrack.

Dude totally deserves the jail time, though.

]]>By: RyanHhttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-500089
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-500089To everyone who is reading some sort of dire conspiracy into the time jump between the people walking by and the car: take a deep breath and calm down. Most good security systems don;t record if there is no movement. They did not edit the video, there was no video recorded between the end of the last movement and the car. All the video is being continuously sent to a buffer. If nothing is happening, that buffer doesn’t get saved.
]]>By: unklstuarthttp://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/man-who-drove-into-c.html#comment-501114
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-501114This video (edited or not) would have been played frame for frame for the jury with detailed explaination of the time stamps which show that there were definitly people in the building at that time of day. The defense would also point out the off hour time and the fact that no one was injured in order to try and lessen the sentence. Either way, callous disregard for life.